-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Washington Post critic Hank Stuever does n't think much of the TV networks ' new shows such as `` The Playboy Club , '' `` Pan Am '' and `` Charlie 's Angels . ''

`` If the only women you ever saw were those on these shows , you would have a hard time believing that a liberation movement had ever occurred , '' he wrote in a recent review . `` It 's all bunnies , baby dolls and broads -- and bridezillas and bimbos , if you get into reality TV . It 's still giggles and jiggles . ''

I 'm with you , Hank . But you know what ? We are fast becoming dinosaurs .

It 's difficult for me to get excited about weekly reminders of a time when cocktail waitresses were paid to be sex objects , if not sex partners . Or when young , perfectly coiffed stewardesses worked 12 - to 15-hour shifts wearing girdles , tight suits , high heels and a smile , no matter how rude the passengers were or how frisky the pilots .

My reservations are not shared , however , by most of the 20-something women I know . The new shows , along with AMC 's `` Mad Men , '' have little to do with today 's work environment , they say . They are period pieces , nothing more .

`` It would be like you watching Westerns , '' said Stefanie , who works for a Washington nonprofit . -LRB- Not exactly , honey . I 'm not that old . But , ouch . -RRB-

I asked Stefanie and her co-worker Lauren , both voracious television viewers , to talk about this latest Hollywood run on sexism that started , of course , four years ago with the ad agency drama `` Mad Men . ''

`` It 's important to watch such shows to see how women used to be treated , '' Stefanie said . `` As in , a woman back then rarely knew where she stood . Peggy , a secretary -LRB- in `` Mad Men '' -RRB- , was promoted to copy writer and Joan , head of the secretarial pool , was not . It had nothing to do with how hard they worked . ''

Lauren agreed : `` The show helps me understand where women had to come from . ''

Neither Stefanie nor Lauren are bothered by the butt-shaking , boob-exposing women of `` The Playboy Club '' or by the creepy older men throwing back shots of whiskey and pinching young behinds . They were unfazed even by the comment of Billy , the manager , that he married his bunny girlfriend in order to get her `` pregnant and ugly '' so that other men would n't look at her .

Compared to what else they see on TV -- the reality-TV bimbos on `` Jersey Shore , '' for example -- the newest babes are downright classy , said Lauren . `` Bunnies were sex symbols , but it was n't porn like it is now , '' she said . `` Porn used to be soft-core , art . Now it 's trashy . ''

Club founder Hugh Hefner was selling sex , Lauren continued . `` The bunnies were simply putting their best merchandise in the window . Hefner did n't create porn ; he just classed it up and monetized it . '' The bunnies made more money than they could have doing other jobs at the time , Lauren added , and in some cases , more than their male clients . So who really was being used ?

The stewardesses of `` Pan Am , '' full-figured and fully clothed , intrigue Stefanie and Lauren in part because they are n't the stick figures that populate so much of television today -LRB- including the new , vapid `` Charlie 's Angels '' -RRB- .

`` Full-figure is a healthier view of women , '' Lauren said . I had to agree , even as I squirm at the idea that the '60s look she appreciates was dictated by the suits in the airlines ' corporate offices .

Interestingly , the subplots I picked up in `` Pan Am '' -- predictable `` female '' themes such as sister jealousy , having an affair with a married man , spending most of their time serving food and smiling -- are not what Stefanie immediately commented on .

She liked the fact that one attendant went against her parents ' wishes to work for `` the world 's most experienced airline , '' and that another was recruited to be a CIA spy . This suggested some depth to their characters , did n't it ?

Yes , I said . However , I reminded her , those attendants had gone about as far as they could within the airline 's corporate structure , and if they got married or pregnant , they were grounded .

True , she said , and that makes her appreciate the lack of such restrictions today . `` Hard work pays off for women now , '' she said . `` If you want move up the ladder you can . '' -LRB- Just as her TV idol , Tami Taylor , did on the recently departed `` Friday Night Lights '' when the Taylor family moved to Philadelphia so Tami could become a college dean . -RRB-

A dose of reality is called for here . Statistic No. 1 : According to an article in CNNMoney , only 12 Fortune 500 companies are run by women , down from 15 last year .

No. 2 : While the wage gap between younger women and men has narrowed slightly , men in all age groups still make more than women , according to data from the Institute for Women 's Policy Research , a Washington think tank .

No. 3 : Within the last two years , among 18 - to 34-year-olds , twice as many women as men have been unemployed and looking for work for a month or longer , according to a forthcoming report by IWPR .

I suspect Stefanie and Lauren will , somewhere along their career paths , encounter sexist attitudes as well as disparities in salary and responsibility . But I 'm delighted they are moving into the workplace with confidence . They do n't have to think about feminism as often as my generation did . They were born feminist , as were many of their friends , male as well as female .

They have more choices than did young women of the '60s , are paid more equitably and either laugh off or skewer men who insult them . Some of them work for women . They 're coming out of the starting gate with more speed .

That 's a good thing , because it will soon be up to them -- and the men who support them -- to move women still further forward .

The opinions in this commentary are solely those of Laura Sessions Stepp .

@highlight

`` The Playboy Club '' and `` Pan Am '' look back before women 's liberation , says Laura Stepp

@highlight

Today 's young women see the shows only as harmless period pieces , Stepp says

@highlight

But in the workplace , women have still not achieved equality , she says

@highlight

Even so , women are `` coming out of the starting gate with more speed , '' says Stepp